Field of the Disclosure
The present disclosure relates generally to a memory enhancing system, interface, and methods for assisting individuals with memorization and in developing and/or enhancing memory skills, more particularly to a computer-base memory enhancing system, memory enhancing process, memory enhancing interface, memory enhancing files, and memory enhancing methods that provide users with tools to enhance memorization.
Discussion of the Background
The method of the loci (plural of Latin locus for place or location), also called the memory palace, is a mnemonic device introduced in ancient Roman rhetorical treatises (in the anonymous “Rhetorica ad Herennium,” Cicero's “De Oratore,” and Quintilian's “Institutio oratoria”). It relies on memorized spatial relationships to establish order and recollect memorial content. The term is most often found in specialized works on psychology, neurobiology and memory, though it was used in the same general way at least as early as the first half of the nineteenth century in works on rhetoric, logic and philosophy.
The memory palace is also commonly called the mental walk. In basic terms, it is a method of memory enhancement which uses visualization to organize and recall information. Many memory contest champions use this technique in order to recall faces, digits, and lists of words. These champions' successes have little to do with brain structure or intelligence, but more to do with their technique of using regions of their brain that have to do with spatial learning. Those parts of the brain that contribute most significantly to this technique include the medial parietal cortex, retrosplenial cortex, and the right posterior hippocampus.
Generally, memorization is a necessary skill in life, and particularly for education. However, memorization can be a boring, long, and tedious process requiring significant expenditures of time and effort. Visual memory techniques such as the memory palace method (aka the method of the loci) have been proven to lead to significant gains in memorization speed, capacity, and retention.
However, developing and mastering these techniques currently requires significant time, effort, study, and creativity. For example, US Patent Publication 2006/0234199 to Walker et al. discloses a system and method for developing memory skills but fails to provide a process for transforming linguistic inputs into visual images for memorization purposes. The process for transforming linguistic inputs for visual memorization requires significant time, effort, and creativity and can be a boring, long, and tedious process. Therefore there is a need for a method and/or system which assists with the transformation of linguistic inputs (words or sets of words) into components (hereinafter defined so as to include images, objects, subjects, spaces, words, and/or any combinations or subdivisions thereof) that can be (i) used to recall the original input, (ii) organized sequentially, and (iii) linked to corresponding databases.
Similarly, the transformation of an outline structured text with nested levels of headings and sub-headings, into components that can be (i) used to recall the original input, (ii) organized sequentially, and (iii) linked to corresponding databases requires significant time, effort, and creativity and can be a boring, long, and tedious process.
Therefore, there is a need to provide a system and method for memory enhancing and/or refining memory skills that overcomes the disadvantages and shortcomings of the prior art.